Editing Hayes Noel (section)

== Early paintball experiments ==

=== Discovery of marking pistols ===

The men became aware of paint-firing marking pistols used for agricultural and forestry applications.

The equipment included the [[Nel-Spot 007]], manufactured for marking livestock and trees.

A mutual acquaintance, filmmaker [[George Butler]], is identified in some historical accounts as having drawn attention to the marking pistols through an agricultural supply catalogue.[6]

=== Initial equipment ===

The Nel-Spot 007 was a manually operated marking pistol powered by a 12-gram CO2 cartridge.

It fired paint-filled projectiles.

The marker had not originally been developed as recreational sporting equipment.

=== Testing the equipment ===

Before organising a larger game, Noel and Gaines experimented with the marking pistols.

Accounts describe the men firing paintballs at one another to determine whether being struck would be tolerable.

WARPIG's 1998 retrospective identifies this as an early documented instance of paint-firing marking pistols being used against another person for recreation.[5]

=== Informal stalking game ===

Historical accounts also describe an informal one-on-one stalking game involving Noel and Gaines before the twelve-person event.

In a later recollection, Gaines described playing a short game in wooded terrain during which neither participant fired a shot.[6]

These experiments preceded the organised game held in June 1981.

=== Historical distinction ===

The informal experiments should be distinguished from the first widely documented organised paintball game.

The experiments involved only two participants and did not have the larger event's established rules, flag stations and organised group of competitors.